Days were long for Yabi. They have been at the same job since finishing high school. Wake, food, train, work, train, food, sleep, wake food, train, work, train, food, sleep. This was Yabi’s life for as long as Yabi thought of themselves as an adult. As a child, the life of an adult is full of mystery and seriousness, full of paper documents and important decisions. This was not how Yabi’s life has been. The unseriousness of Yabi’s life made them consider if maybe they were doing what is right in their life.
As a child, Yabi had been told to weigh their decisions, that all decisions are important, that if you don’t know where you are going in life, these choices will haunt you. Other versions of yourself will torment you as you sleep. Lately, as Yabi slept, they imagined other versions of Yabi hovering above them. The Other Yabis shouted and mocked Yabi, laughing and jeering, anything to keep Yabi awake.
Yabi went to a doctor to get sleeping tablets. The sleeping tablets let Yabi sleep, but now the wraiths of Yabi came to them in the dreams instead. Yabi tried to run, but nothing happened. Yabi tried to scream, but nothing happened. When Yabi closed their eyes in the dream, Yabi woke up. Nothing worked.
Yabi couldn’t work. Yabi couldn’t do anything. Yabi only thought about the Other Yabis. The Yabi who got married, the Yabi who went to university, the Yabi who was famous. On a cold November morning, when Yabi was so disappointed that Yabi walked into the sea, they passed on. After the dark, and then the light, Yabi looked around and saw themselves with the Other Yabis. Another Yabi lay on a bed far below.
– Alex SINCLAIR